Wave of teachers’ strikes pressure states, school boards to change tune
(OAKLAND, Calif.) — Having seen teachers score victories in Los Angeles, Denver and a string of states in their fights for higher wages and better working conditions, more than 3,000 educators in Oakland, California, have voted to go on strike this week.
“Oakland teachers cannot afford to live in Oakland,” Keith Brown, president of the Oakland Education Association, said during a news conference on Saturday. “One out of five leaves each year. Five-hundred classrooms are left with inexperienced teachers.”
Teachers voted overwhelmingly to walk off their jobs on Thursday, Brown said.
To stem the tide of teachers exiting the Oakland Unified School District, which has more than 37,000 students, the union is asking for a 12 percent raise over three years, smaller class sizes and more support staff.
The school district is offering a 5 percent raise, retroactive to when the union’s contract expired in July 2017.
The union and the school district began bargaining on a new contract in December 2016, but after 30 negotiating sessions encompassing 200 hours of bargaining, an impasse was declared on May 18, 2018. Both sides agreed to mediation, but that failed to break the stalemate.
School District Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell said she is still hopeful that an agreement can be reached to avoid the first teachers’ strike in Oakland in 23 years.
“Despite our challenges, we are prepared with a comprehensive proposal to reach an agreement,” Johnson-Trammell said in a statement over the weekend. “If both sides are committed to settling the contract before a strike occurs — and we are — an agreement can certainly be reached without disrupting the educational experience for students, families and staff.”
Wave of teachers’ strikes
If Oakland teachers walk out of classrooms this week and hit the picket lines, the job action will become the latest in a string of public school teacher strikes that have swept the nation in the past 12 months.
The wave of teachers strikes started in West Virginia, where one year ago this week more than 20,000 teachers across the state walked off the job and formed picket lines for nearly two weeks before Gov. Jim Justice signed a bill granting educators and other state employees a 5 percent pay raise.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said the West Virginia strike was a game changer that inspired teachers across the nation.
“I don’t like when people say, ‘Well if they can do it in West Virginia, we can do it’ because that is really insulting to West Virginia. But it is a sense that they saw themselves with it. It inspired them and they CONTINUE READING: Wave of teachers’ strikes pressure states, school boards to change tune | Beatrice News Channel
